State Firms Entrenched In Business Of Weapons

The arms industry provides jobs in times of war and takes them away in times of peace, and no state is more dependent on defense contracts than Connecticut.

The state has armed the country for more than 200 years, ever since the Salisbury Furnace produced an estimated 75 percent of the cannons used by the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War.

In more recent times, the workers of Connecticut have helped to arm the rest of the world, as well.

Prosperity in Connecticut depends heavily on one of the world's premier aerospace companies -- Hartford's United Technologies Corp., the state's largest private employer, the nation's eighth largest exporter, and, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the world's 13th largest arms-producing company.

United Technologies' presence in the state is evident in economic indicators.

In 1991, Connecticut continued to lead all states in per capita Pentagon spending for prime defense contracts: $1,511 for every man, woman and child, compared with a national average of $484.

Connecticut is also the nation's leading per capita exporting state. More than 160 Connecticut companies are registered with the federal government as "munitions" manufacturers and exporters.

In 1991, United Technologies was responsible for almost half of Connecticut's $5.2 billion in exports, but the company could not estimate what percentage of its exports were defense-related.

Together, aerospace and defense accounted for 52 percent of total sales of $21.3 billion for United Technologies in 1991. Pentagon business accounted for just 19 percent of total sales, down from 26 percent in 1988 and 33 percent in 1982, according to the company.

Last year, responding to a slumping global economy and shrinking defense budgets, the company announced a severe cost-cutting program, which included a reduction of 14,000 in its worldwide work force. More than 6,000 of those job losses will be in Connecticut.

At the same time, the company said it was aggressively looking overseas for new business opportunities. In 1991 international business accounted for more than half of total revenues, a share the company wants to increase to 75 percent by the year 2000. The bulk of United Technologies' international sales are non-military, and many are made from the company's 120 foreign manufacturing plants in 25 countries.

On the defense export side, the Pratt & Whitney division projects international deliveries of its military F100 jet engines will increase from 25 percent of total sales this year to as much as 95 percent in 1995.

Exporting is not an option for another of the state's major private employers, the Electric Boat division of General Dynamics Corp., which makes submarines for one customer, the U.S. Navy. The Navy does not allow Electric Boat to sell any kind of submarine overseas.

In June, Electric Boat laid off 1,800 workers at its shipyard in Groton.

More than 700 companies get Pentagon contracts each year for work in Connecticut. But about 80 percent of that work goes to Electric Boat and United Technologies.

Deepening an already severe recession, the state's share of Pentagon contracts plunged 30 percent from 1989 to 1990. In 1991 the total rose to $4.9 billion from the 1990 figure of $4.2 billion.

Nobody is sure how many Connecticut jobs depend on defense, but state officials agreed with a 1991 Pentagon estimate of 134,000 jobs.

Among companies that have manufacturing plants in Connecticut, Textron-Lycoming of Stratford had the third largest amount of Pentagon contract dollars in 1991. Last month the company, which makes turbine engines for tanks, airplanes and helicopters, announced it planned to eliminate 1,400 jobs, representing 40 percent of its work force, in the next 12 months.

Textron-Lycoming's export sales have fluctuated over the past five years, according to spokesman Bill McDaniel, who declined to be more specific.

The 1991 Persian Gulf war provided welcome overseas sales for many defense companies, among them Colt's Manufacturing Co. of Hartford.

The company said military export sales shot up from about 30 percent to 50 percent of total sales during the war due to substantial purchases of guns by the Kuwait government.

But despite that brief boost, Colt's filed for protection from creditors in Bankruptcy Court this spring. The company had been hurt by labor problems, Pentagon budget cuts and foreign competition.